1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to design and verification of a large-scale integration (LSI).
2. Description of the Related Art
Expression or description of a specification or a computer-interpretable specification model using unified modeling language (UML) is becoming essential in upstream design processes of LSI design and in upstream processes of software development as a whole. The specification is described by a use case diagram and the specification model is described by an activity diagram (and vice versa), and with respect to these diagrams, means of expressing each of them are provided such as that described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2003-76548, 2003-108220, 2003-178103, 2004-70810, and 2000-353082; and PCT International Patent Application Japanese Translation Publication No. 2005-530238.
However, in the above conventional technologies, as the use case diagram and the activity diagram are prepared independently of each other with respect to same object subject to design and verification, a problem of inconsistency between the use case diagram and the activity diagram arises.
The inconsistency between the use case diagram and the activity diagram leads to errant upstream design, resulting in design errors or redesign. Therefore, in the above conventional technologies, problems related to increased labor and lengthened design periods arise.